The Mathematics of Escalators on the London
Underground
Transport for London
Mechanical Engineering
Figure-1: Escalators at Canary Wharf Station
SOME SIMPLE CALCULATIONS OF SCALE
4 million people use the London Underground
every day. In the morning rush, around 20,000
people per hour travel down the 23 escalators at
Canary Wharf Underground station. That’s more
than 300 people every minute.
20000 people per hour
= 333 people per minute
60 minutes per hour
Escalators on London Underground travel at a
standard 0.75 m/sec on a standard 30° incline. An
escalator step is 1 m wide and 400 mm (0.4 m)
from front to back so a fresh step rolls out at the
top of the escalator every 0.533 seconds.
0 .4 m
= 0.533 sec
0.75 m/sec
If every step carries one person then the
maximum capacity of the escalator is
approximately 6,750 people per hour.
3600 sec/hr
= 6754 steps and people
0.533 sec/step
Consider an escalator that is 15 m along the
incline. A step will take 20 seconds to travel that
distance and, including 5 flat steps at the top and
4 at the bottom, there will be around 46 steps
available for people to occupy at any one time. 37
people would take 20 seconds to rise a height of
7.5 m in the vertical plane.
opposite height
sin( 30 ) = = m
hypoteneuse 15
height = 15 × sin( 30 ) = 7.5 m
If the average person has a mass of 75 kg, then
the power required to lift 37 people would be
about 10 kW.
mass × g × height 75 × 9.81 × 7.5 × 37
power = = = 10.21 kW
time 20
Here, g is the acceleration due to gravity. In
addition to the mass of the person, the step they
are standing on has a mass of 35 kg and the
section of chain driving it a further 10 kg. But for
every step travelling up on an escalator, there is
another travelling down, so the effect of this
additional mass is neglected. But of course, the
escalator can accommodate almost 50% more
people walking alongside those standing.
Allowing 2 kW more for friction, and assuming a
motor efficiency of 90% this 15m escalator
typically consumes about 20 kW of electrical
power.
HOW GREEN ARE ESCALATORS?
How much CO2 gets emitted for a single person
on a 15 m escalator? 1 kW-hr of coal-fired
electricity typically produces 0.9 kg of CO2. Thus,
the kW-hr per person on a single trip is:
(10.21 + 2) × 20
= 0.00183 kW-hr
37 3600
0.00183 × 0.9 = 0.00165 kg = 1.65 g
Thus, 1.65 g of CO2 is being emitted per person
per trip.
How does this compare with the carbon
emissions from travel on the underground trains
themselves? This is commonly taken as 68 g of
CO2 per passenger kilometre. The equivalent
emissions on the escalator are:
1000
× 1.65 ≈ 110 g
15
So, 110 g of CO2 is being emitted per passenger
kilometre going uphill. Going downhill the figure
drops to 18 g (the figure required to overcome
friction and motor inefficiency alone). Both of
these figures are better than the emissions from a
standard family car that emits 200 g of CO2 per
passenger kilometre with only one vehicle
occupant. But the escalator emissions are 162%
of the train emissions. So why have escalators
at all?
Firstly, only the very fittest people could walk up
the 100 or so stairs found at the typical deep tube
station on the Underground. Also, even if
everyone was super-fit, the number of people Accelerometers (piezo-electric devices that sense
able to access, say Waterloo station in the acceleration) are fitted to an escalator step to
morning rush, would drop from 51,000 to measure vertical and horizontal acceleration as
something like 34,000 assuming that a person shown below
can travel upstairs at a speed of 0.5 m/sec.
0 .5
× 51,000 = 34,000
0.75
Replicated around the whole tube network,
assuming that 3,000,000 people access the Tube
network by escalator, this means a million less
people a day could access the Tube network.
Figure-2: Horizontal and Vertical Components of
 0.5  Acceleration
3,000,000 −  × 3,000,000  = 1,000,000
 0.75  The acceleration along the incline is therefore
If those million people drove only 5 km in a car, acceleration = x˙˙ cosθ + z˙˙ sinθ
they would emit perhaps
That acceleration could be integrated to yield
1,000,000 × 0.2 × 5 = 1,000 tonnes CO2. velocity along the incline. Data of this type is
Whereas, 5 km by underground would emit shown in Figure – 3. The ideal velocity time
1,000,000 × 0.068 × 5 = 340 tonnes CO2. history is shown with a dotted line. The electro-
mechanical performance of an escalator is less
This saves 640 tonnes of CO2 for those 5 km. than ideal so the actual velocity time history is
That’s a good economics. something different.
A 15 m up escalator, running for the typical 20
hours service each day on the London
Underground, produces 220 kg of CO2.
(10.2 + 2) × 0.9 × 20 ≈ 220 kg = 0.22 tonnes CO2.
The one going down produces 36 kg of CO2. With
418 escalators on the network, this means
approximately 54 tonnes of CO2 being released
everyday by the escalators each day.
( 220 + 36 )
× 418 = 53.5 tonnes CO2.
2
EXTENSION ACTIVITY – 1:
There are many hidden assumptions in this
economic argument. What are they?
APPLICATIONS OF TRIGONOMETRY AND OF DIFFERENTIATION
Figure-3: Velocity vs. Time
We know that passenger flows in and out of
stations peak in the morning and evening rush APPLICATIONS OF PERCENTAGES
hours and slow right down at other times. Even on Escalators are important to maximizing passenger
the busiest stations, there will be times when the flows on the Underground network. Therefore,
escalator is operating with nobody on it. How their availability is measured.
about we introduce an automated system that running time
only operates the escalator when there is availability =
somebody there to ride it? This would clearly save planned running time
a lot of CO2. But it’s not easy. Escalators in service are very reliable, giving
EXTENSION ACTIVITY – 2: 100% availability. But if a hand rail slips, and
takes 6 hours to repair? What will availability drop
If people approach a self-starting escalator from
to if the reporting period for availability is 4
both ends simultaneously – will it go up or down?
weeks?
Try to think of ways to avoid this problem.
 6 
The common standard for escalators calls for 100 −   × 100 = 98.93%
acceleration levels on start-up or stop to be less  4 × 7 × 20 
than 1 m/sec2 along the incline. Any more and
there is significant risk of people being knocked
WHERE TO FIND MORE
off their feet. How is that measured?
1. Basic Engineering Mathematics, John Bird,
2007, published by Elsevier Ltd.
2. Engineering Mathematics, Fifth Edition, John 3. http://science.howstuffworks.com/escalator1.h
Bird, 2007, published by Elsevier Ltd. tm

Tony Miller – Engineer on London Underground

Studied Physics before becoming an engineer in the power industry. Then he transferred to
railways working first on rolling stock before moving into station machinery such as lifts and
escalators.
INFORMATION FOR TEACHERS
The teachers should have some knowledge of
 Manipulating and using trigonometric functions (ratios in right-angled triangle)
 How to calculate percentages
 How to plot the graphs of simple functions using excel or other resources
TOPICS COVERED FROM “MATHEMATICS FOR ENGINEERING”
 Topic 4: Functions
 Topic 5: Geometry
 Topic 6: Differentiation and Integration
LEARNING OUTCOMES
 LO 03: Understand the use of trigonometry to model situations involving oscillations
 LO 04: Understand the mathematical structure of a range of functions and be familiar with their graphs
 LO 06: Know how to use differentiation and integration in the context of engineering analysis and
problem solving
 LO 09: Construct rigorous mathematical arguments and proofs in engineering context
 LO 10: Comprehend translations of common realistic engineering contexts into mathematics
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
 AC 3.1: Solve problems in engineering requiring knowledge of trigonometric functions
 AC 4.1: Identify and describe functions and their graphs
 AC 6.1: Calculate the rate of change of a function
 AC 6.3: Find definite and indefinite integrals of functions
 AC 9.2: Manipulate mathematical expressions
 AC 10.1: Read critically and comprehend longer mathematical arguments or examples of applications.
LINKS TO OTHER UNITS OF THE ADVANCED DIPLOMA IN ENGINEERING
 Unit-1: Investigating Engineering Business and the Environment
 Unit-3: Selection and Application of Engineering Materials
 Unit-5: Maintaining Engineering Plant, Equipment and Systems
 Unit-6: Investigating Modern Manufacturing Techniques used in Engineering
 Unit-7: Innovative Design and Enterprise
 Unit-8: Mathematical Techniques and Applications for Engineers
 Unit-9: Principles and Application of Engineering Science